Islington Council has formally approved its first Social Value Statement, a document designed to embed social value into all commissioning and procurement activities, aiming to deliver tangible benefits for residents, communities, and local businesses.
The statement, endorsed by the council's Executive committee on Thursday 17 September 2026, outlines five key themes: Communities, Economy, Environment, Employment, and Youth and Education. The council expects this to create opportunities for local people to gain skills, grow local supply chains, improve the local environment, tackle climate change, retain wealth locally, and promote outcomes that tackle inequality.
Councillor James Potts, Executive Member for Inclusive Economy & Planning, highlighted the approval of the statement during the Executive meeting. The statement aims to ensure that the council's spending power is leveraged to create these tangible benefits.
To ensure providers 'share Islington's values', suppliers will be expected to clearly demonstrate how they will contribute to the council's social value objectives. For relevant contracts, there will be a weighting of at least 20% of the overall scoring and evaluation for social value commitments. The council will also consider 'inherent social value,' specifically the extent to which suppliers demonstrate ethical, inclusive, and purpose-driven practice in their operations, employment practices, climate actions, and supply chain engagement.
The Social Value Statement is a foundational step in embedding the council's core values into its supply chain. It communicates a commitment to working with providers who share Islington's values and are dedicated to delivering social value. The statement will be published on the council's website and promoted to suppliers, supporting the integration of social impact into the Islington Inclusive Growth Plan.
In response to a review by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee into Progressive Procurement, the council has committed to increasing dedicated resources for social value initiatives. Additional posts have been secured for the Change and Social Value team for the next two years, with these resources in place from 2026/27 quarter 3. This additional resourcing is proposed to assist with systemising, monitoring, and monetising social value, driving forward the National Procurement Policy Statement, sustaining compliance in social value, improving corporate dashboards and reporting, and driving commercial capabilities including training delivery.
Governance arrangements for social value are also being strengthened. The terms of reference for the Commissioning, Procurement and Contracts Corporate Board are being reviewed to expand its remit to cover contract management, monitoring, supplier relationship management, and supplier assurance, including the delivery of social value. The Board's terms of reference will be reviewed with the Chair during 2026/27 quarter 3. Further arrangements to report delivery of social value commitments directly to the Corporate Management Team are being considered as part of establishing arrangements for annual reporting on social value delivery, including exploring quarterly reporting on social value delivery for certain strategic contracts.
Furthermore, a pilot for monitoring social value delivery across council contracts has begun, with the aim of establishing a robust reporting template for an annual report to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee from 2027. The council is piloting measuring social value delivery through its social value portal, which includes heat mapping and needs analysis capabilities focused at ward level. An annual report on procurement activity, including evidence of wealth flow, a heat map of spend by ward, KPIs for social value measures, supplier performance, equality, diversity and inclusion, insourcing, and resident impact, will be provided to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee from 2027.
The council is also developing a bank of 'asks' to reflect community needs, with input from members, services across the council, local voluntary and community sector organisations, and communities. The prioritization of these 'asks' will be co-designed with partners and informed by residents, services, local businesses, Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise sector organisations (VCSEs), and anchor institutions, intended to become a live tool. The council plans to explore the feasibility of a social value fund and provide a recommendation as part of the first annual report to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in 2027. The meeting information does not detail potential sources of funding for such a fund.